The pipeline – GCSEs and A-Levels
Women continue to be under-represented in STEM despite the fact that girls and young women perform well in STEM subjects at GCSE and A-Level.
In 2022, 40.1% of girls who took Physics A-Level were awarded A or A*, a decrease of 13.2% from last year but an increase of 11.4% from 2019. Sadly, just 9,197 girls took the exam compared with 30,556 boys. Of the girls that took maths A-Level, 48.5% got A or A* but the number of girls that took the exam (36,083) was still considerably lower than the number of boys (59,552). For a more in-depth look at 2022 A-Level STEM results see our analysis here.
The core-STEM workforce
This disparity feeds into the number of women working in the core-STEM workforce, with government workforce data as of end of Dec 2021 showing women making up 26.6% of the core-STEM workforce, up from 24.4% in 2020.
The percentage of women in core-STEM roles varies according to sector. For example, women IT professionals currently account for 21.0% in the tech workforce, while women engineers account for just 12.5%.
Fewer girls and women opt for STEM subjects at GCSE and A-Level and this can make it difficult for them to pursue a STEM career later in life.
My Skills My Life
The limited pipeline has a detrimental impact on the Core-STEM workforce. WISE has therefore created a resource, My Skills My Life, to help young people discover careers suited to their personality types via a personality quiz. Once students have completed the quiz, they will be given access to a number of real-life role models that have the same personality as them as well as information about their career in STEM.
My Skills My Life is a great opportunity for young people to find out about different STEM careers before making a decision about their future!
For more information on the programme please contact your relationship manager.